The Labour Party (LP) has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s remark that the opposition lost the 2023 presidential election due to overconfidence, complacency, and tactical blunders.
President Buhari spoke on Thursday at his residence in the State House where he received governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said that while the ruling APC was working hard to retain power in the recent elections, the opposition “were already telling their foreign backers that they would defeat the APC”.
Buhari added, “Our Party blended confidence with caution, we worked hard and won. Now, their overconfidence is creating more problems for the opposition than anyone else. They are finding it hard to convince those who supported them from outside why they are unable to beat us.
“A combination of overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves made them lose, plain and clear. This has created more problems in their camp. Why did they fail to remove us?”
In a Friday statement, LP’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, said “the president was completely wrong to say opposition parties lost because of over confidence”.
According to Ifoh, the opposition lost the election because “it was manipulated and rigged beyond comprehension”.
“The Labour Party is very worried and disturbed with the statement from the office of the President wherein he said that the opposition parties lost the 2023 presidential election because of their overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves, and which he claimed created more problems for them.
“We want to point it out clearly to President Muhammadu Buhari that his position on the outcome of the said election was false, untrue, and it is not a true reflection of what played out during the election.
“There are several reasons why opposition political parties lost the 2023 election; the first is that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) snubbed the electoral act wherein it failed to upload the result from the polling unit in real time as promised and in disregard to the laws guiding the election. The INEC by so doing, created room for that election to be rigged.
“Again, the current APC president elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t win the election, because the said election, particularly, the presidential election was manipulated and rigged beyond comprehension.
“So political parties didn’t lose election because of over confidence or complacency as proffered by Mr. President, APC, in collaboration with the various government agencies, simply rigged the election and rigged themselves into power.
“All of these put together. Do they amount to over confidence and complacency on the part of the opposition party? It shows that the President who promised Nigerians that he was going to give Nigerians a free, fair, and credible election simply failed in his duty in giving Nigerians the election they deserved.
“So, Mr. President is completely wrong. I believe that he was ill advised. It was erroneous for him to say that opposition parties lost election because of over confidence.
“In fact, Labour Party won the election but it was brazenly stolen by APC. Mr. President is aware of the fact that APC did not win the election and that it was stolen,” the LP statement read.